IN Awards

When we started Realmark, winning awards was the last thing on our mind...


When it happens, it’s always a very humbling experienced. So we’re thrilled to be able to share with you that Realmark has been recognized as the leading residential agency in Western Australia at the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia Awards.


We also scooped the pool in the property management section; Realmark’s Christine Smith won Best Commercial Property Manager for the second year running while Sara Young was recognized as Best Residential Property Manager. Gemma Timmins was given the special accolade of Best Property Manager, voted by the public.


We know that what we do at Realmark is different, so to have our industry peers recognize this in such a powerful way is really rewarding for us. It’s  a massive endorsement of the unique and innovative approach we bring to real estate. We’re incredibly proud to be recognized in this way and so thrilled that our hard working team has been honoured.


Our team works very hard to deliver the best possible service in an industry, which is fast-paced and rapidly changing. Our approach is driven by innovation and we strive to deliver fresh and exciting methods of selling and managing for our clients. We do it because we know it is critical to getting the best results for you.


At the end of the day, the reason we do this is so that our clients get the best result, every time. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for you, so thank you.

IN Citrus

 
Citrus plants seem to generate more questions than any other when it comes to home gardening. So Sabrina Hahn squeezes every last little bit of information into a new book to help.

“People take gardening a bit too seriously,” says Sabrina Hahn, a woman who has made it her life. “It’s really a lot of experimenting, having a go at stuff and learning as you go. If you’re too serious you don’t experiment. So this book gives people access to the knowledge to help them do that.”

The book she is talking about is Sabrina’s Juicy Little Book of Citrus, a pocket-sized but zesty bible for anyone who wants to grow healthy citrus in the garden. Packed with information it covers everything from propagation, pruning and care to pests and diseases. The book is handy enough to put in your pocket and take along next time you’re thinking of buying a citrus tree thanks to the section describing the different kinds of citrus for the home gardener, including a section on Australian bush tucker and native limes.

“I think there’s a good balance of technical information, fun facts about gardening and some of that mother’s wisdom.” The obsessive gardener doesn’t forget a dash of humour either, vital when you’re dealing with citrus.

Sabrina – who you’ve probably heard talking gardening on ABC Radio – says the only thing which should be overwhelming in your garden is its beauty. Equally, she considers them a constant work in progress as you learn, plant and prune. She says you don’t need to be the best gardener, just passionate about it.

Lime and lemon trees, in pots and in the ground, are a big feature of this Perth gardener’s own backyard alongside a decent vegetable garden. Sabrina is part of a wider movement of people choosing to grow more of their own produce and eat with the seasons.

“Seasonal cooking has been popular in Europe for a long time, particularly in France and we have the opportunity to do that here with excellent-tasting produce.

“I think it’s a combination of people wanting to be more self-sufficient as well as being concerned about food’s freshness and what’s being sprayed on it. They’re also more aware of the flavours of fresh food and looking at things and saying ‘I should be able to grow that in my own garden’.”

If it’s citrus, you’ve got a perfect guide in Sabrina’s book.

“We lost the last generation of gardeners and many small veg shops with the rise of the big supermarkets. With that we lost a lot of knowledge of how to grow your own food. My grandmother and mother were avid gardeners and I grew up with two generations growing their own food. Now it’s coming back around again and people are planting everything from small edible gardens and growing a citrus tree or two to full-blown fruit, veg and herb gardens.”

Sabrina’s Juicy Little Book of Citrus ($19.99) is published in October through Fremantle Press and available at all good bookstores.

IN Derby

They’re fast, sexy and hell on wheels. Meet the women of the Perth Roller Derby League.

The women of the Perth Roller Derby League like to skate fast and make every lap count. But it seems that what they like to do even more is have fun.

While popular in the 1940’s roller derby began a modern revival in the early 2000’s as a women’s amateur event. There are now more than 1200 amateur leagues around the world and the roller sport is now under consideration for the 2020 Olympics.

Roller derby gals race on quad roller skates and Perth’s two home teams are The Bloody Sundaes and Mistresses of Mayhem. In keeping with the aesthetic of the sport, skaters choose names and outfits which are an eclectic and colourful mix of punk, rockabilly, third-wave feminism and usually take their skater names from word play, sexual puns or allusions to pop culture. They can range from Princess Lay-Ya Flat to Drag’n SlayHer, Night of the Rolling Dead and Perth’s own Bronte Sore Ass.

Flat track women’s roller derby is run on an oval track with two teams of 14, five of whom are on the track at any one time. Four are blockers and one is a jammer. It’s the jammer’s job to score the points by lapping the other team, while the blockers keep the other team away from her while continuously moving around the track. This means you’re playing offense and defence at the same time while trying to support your jammer to score a point and preventing the opposing jammer from scoring.

The women of Perth Roller Derby (PRD) range in age from 18 to 45 and are everything from teachers, scientists and tattoo artists to journalists, tertiary students and mums. PRD is a not-for-profit organisation which runs the derby bouts and co-ordinates travelling teams to play in other states.

They started in 2008 after a group of local women saw the documentary Hell on Wheels about the evolution of roller derby and wanted to start their own local league.

Lisel “Babeonic Plague” Avey is a lawyer and has been involved in Perth Roller Derby for the last three years. Never having been involved in organised group sport before, she couldn’t even skate when she started.

“It was a unique sport and looked like so much fun,” says Lisel, 26. “It took me about six months to become a confident skater and then I started adding in more of the contact stuff.”

Roller Derby isn’t a free for all when it comes to pushing and shoving. There are numerous rules about how you can connect to another skater but equally enough ways – like a hip or shoulder check – to get them out of the way.

The game is very fast-paced with a lot of stuff happening at one time. A lot of the game is about being able to take a hit, pick yourself up and push through when it gets tough. That determination is a really big thing, plus it’s meant to be fun as well.

Lisel says one of the attractions of the sport is playing something which is fast, highly athletic, allows for physical contact as well as the high fun quotient. The strategic and mental aspect of the game also appeals to her as the play is always changing and you have to think fast on your feet, at speed.

“You have to strategise and the team work is important. You play against your friends on the other team but you come up against them in a fun atmosphere.”

If you prefer your athletes on wheels than on a footy field, Perth’s two teams face off for the 2012 Grand Final on September 29 at the Herb Graham Recreation Centre on Chesterfield Road in Mirrabooka from 7pm.

For more information and ticketing, go to  www.perthrollerderby.com.au

IN San Francisco

 Words from the cutting edge.

Realmark’s Residential Agency Director Gayle Adams has just returned from San Francisco where she was representing Realmark, one of just two agencies from Australia to attend the acclaimed Inman Conference: Real Estate Connect.

This biannual conference is at the forefront of real estate marketing and technology and brings together the world’s top thinkers and leaders in this area.

So, we asked Gayle to list her main takeaways from the experience of mixing with the world’s best thought leaders, geeks and marketers in real estate today:

1.The power of the relationship with the consumer is KEY
2.We must earn trust through building a professional relationship and not one based on kinship or false rapport
3.Nurture trust by assisting consumers to be well informed on market activity
4.To initiate relationships online with consumers, however it’s most important to develop the relationship by taking it into the offline world as well
5.Print media still has a very important role to play in real estate awareness and marketing
6.The power of social media is important. There is much that can be achieved building or initiating relationships through facebook, twitter, Linked In and blogging
7.BUT … it’s not just conversation for the sake of it. It needs to be targeted, specific and tailored
8.The emergence of mobile mediums for accessing technology: cue the mobile video house inspection

It was both invigorating and fascinating to mix with and listen to the global thought leaders in real estate marketing and technology in San Francisco recently, Gayle told us.

“It’s exciting to hear of the possibilities of constantly evolving technology and social media and marketing tools and at the same time realise, that we here at Realmark in Perth are really keeping pace with these developments.”

All of this evolution places the real estate consumer in an advantageous position provided they utilise a real estate agency that is fully engaged in these evolving mediums of marketing and communication.

No longer are the sellers or investors best interests going to be served by the local corner shop agency or the local personality realtor, otherwise they risk underselling or under renting their property.

At Realmark, we place a great deal of emphasis and energy on a multi-medium- multi-layered marketing approach that provides property sellers, buyers and lessors with a huge advantage in the very competitive and busy marketplace.

IN Ice Hockey

They’ve only played one full season but Perth’s first Australian Ice Hockey League team, Perth Thunder, made plenty of noise over the winter season.


They’re one of Perth’s best kept sporting secrets, but Perth Thunder – our first national ice hockey team – have had a phenomenal season in the world’s fastest team sport.


Twenty-four-year-old defensive player Riccardo Del Basso, known as Ric in the No 12 jersey on the ice, is the co-owner of Perth Thunder alongside head coach Stan Scott.


Perth Thunder are a not for profit, semi-professional team which is part of the Australian Ice Hockey League. Though established in 2010, this is the first year of the team’s full inaugural licence. Ric says the team have done extraordinarily well on the ice by already battling for the playoff position this season. They’re also garnering the interest of bigger sponsors, which is what supports the team’s travel and home series logistics.


The team train two nights a week on the ice, do their own fitness work and fly east regularly to compete against the other national teams or host local games at their home ground, the Perth Ice Arena. As they don’t get paid, every player has a fulltime job, including the imported talent.


The Australian season, which is played across our winter, also allows players to head to the northern hemisphere for their winter season to compete while still being able to play in the off-season.


Of the 26 players on the team, most of them were born in Perth with a handful of Canadians and another handful born in the US, New Zealand and England. They range in age from late teens to early 40s, though the majority are in their mid-20s.


Ric fell in love with the ice in his early teens and eventually spent a year in Canada skating everyday, which only reinforced his love for the sport. When he returned home he realised there were not many opportunities to compete in the sport and eventually set about creating one.


“I didn’t really want to leave Perth and go anywhere else,” says Ric, who is also an accountant. But he wanted to keep playing ice hockey at a high level, so he co-founded Perth Thunder in 2010 and after jumping through the regulatory league hoops, the team have been actively competing in their first inaugural season.


Living here is about a lifestyle, which is why the overseas players come here too. They want to play ice hockey and see Australia.


Across the winter season – which runs from April to September – Perth Thunder will have played 24 games, 12 of which were played in Perth. Ric says local support for the team continues to grow and it seems that fans are coming from all age groups.


“It’s a sport which welcomes everyone,” Ric says. “We’re already starting to see some strong development players coming up, which I think has something to do with them seeing there’s a place they can play and seeing the team be successful is great for young players."


For more information, check out www.perththunder.com
The Perth Ice Arena is located at 708 Marshall Road, Malaga.

In Auctions

If you’re ready to sell your property, consider an auction rather than doing what everyone else does.


Around 97% of all properties in Western Australia are sold the same way – with a for sale sign on the verge. With sellers looking for ways to differentiate themselves, auctions are now gaining popularity around Perth, but they still have a way to go.


Phil Hayes is an auctioneer and associate director of Realmark Coastal who says the days of feeling that an auction is a combative way to sell your home is long gone. These days an auction equals communication and is a much more personal affair during the four week campaign where the seller is kept totally in the loop.


“When working an auction you virtually speak to the vendor everyday to update them on any changes,” Phil says. “It’s an intense campaign which is designed to climax with multiple offers at the auction at the end.


“The more available a property is the better, because we can bring more people through which creates more buyer engagement plus a buyer favourable time to consider the property and hopefully fall in love with it."


Realmark’s managing director John Percudani says if you’re going to auction your home, it’s imperative your agent understands how to run an effective marketing campaign.


“It requires a great amount of communication between the agent and the client and it’s imperative the client is given lots of the right amount of information,” John says. “When it’s done by the right person it gets a great result because the client is really getting information in real time about the market and understands their position in order to make a good decision.”


In the past a hesitation by agents in general to be confident in the process is why we don’t see as many auctions in Perth compared to cities like Melbourne, but that’s changing.


For a buyer, having the date of an auction gives you a known timeframe to decide that you want to bid on the house, ready your finances and do any associated homework. It also allows you to view the house numerous times as well.


“For the purchaser, the process is a lot more transparent,” Phil says. “Rather than making multiple offers you are able to compete as you know what the last bid was. Also, the time of the actual sale is compressed into the time it takes to complete the auction.”


Don’t be put off by the number of people who turn up at an auction either. Some of them are simply there to watch and others to take in what can be a rather entertaining and compelling 20 minutes.


“A good auction is quite exciting and entertaining. That’s why it gets a crowd, because it’s an event and people like the sport of it. If you have an engaging auctioneer, it’s even  more entertaining."

IN Full Swing

The upswing is in full swing.


In recent months, we’ve been seeing increasing signs that the residential property market is arising from its slumber and for those who’ve been standing on the sidelines; it really is time to take note of what opportunities are being offered up.


There are green shoots appearing in several sectors of the market. First home buyers are more active as are the so-called upgrade buyers. Investors are responding to higher rental yields and even the top end is showing modest but positive signs again.


Here at Realmark, we’ve been seeing some intense pressure on prices in the $400,000 - $600,000 band and that pressure is beginning to start spreading upwards of the $600,000 mark.


Investors are particularly focussed on properties below $600,000 and the apartment market is noticeably attracting their interest.


Realmark has also experienced a marked increase in properties being referred to its property management division from many renewed or new investors in both the residential and commercial markets.


Even Australia’s top banker – the Governor of the Reserve Bank – last month said that house prices weren’t unreasonably high and affordability is in fact much better than it has been in the past decade or so.


Whilst there are statistics upon statistics, when the person at the helm of all interest rate decisions in this country says house prices have declined to where they were in 2002 and that housing is now more affordable than it was four or five years ago then it’s truly time to sit up and listen.


And that’s when we go back to fundamentals that we now see: construction is down, interest rates are down, supply of houses is tight, rental vacancies are very tight and unemployment is historically low.


At the same time, savings and household income are on the rise, rental returns are strong and rising and buyer enquiries are up.


Add to that the estimated 1,000 or so people flocking into Western Australia each week for the work and the strong economy we have here, and it’s no surprise that the property market is heating up. And right now the market is transitioning from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market.


So what does that mean for you? As an investment buyer, you need to focus on the quality of the asset, the yield on investment, security, facts rather than emotion and the options to exit.


As a seller, you must be very cautious not to “under sell” in the current environment.


Both buyers and sellers must work with an agent who takes the time to understand their individual needs and goals and then provides them with a selection of selling and marketing options.


In this time of transition, it’s never been more important to seek out an agent that uses the customised solution most suited to YOU.


At Realmark, we call this, My Agent, My Advantage – and it’s what we provide for YOU.